“Unfortunately his body lets him down. He always plays well when he’s fit. We’ve been managing him carefully because he’s not been playing twice in a week, but this just came out of the blue.

“He had a minor adductor strain a few weeks before that. We rehabilitated him and he trained all week with no problems at all.

“He’s obviously very down. It was a sad sight to see him walking off the pitch. He’s frustrated because he was playing well on Sunday. He was looking forward to getting a run of games but it wasn’t to be.”

Dr Brukner also revealed central defender Daniel Agger is unlikely to recover from a knee injury in time for tomorrow’s Europa League clash with Braga.

He said: “Daniel had a nasty kick on a joint to the side of his knee. It’s an unusual spot to get an injury. They take time and he’s a bit of a slow healer. He’s still not 100% so we’ll have to see if he’s fit for the game this week. But it’s more likely to be the following week.”

Martin Kelly, who has a similar hamstring injury to Aurelio’s, and Jonjo Shelvey (knee) will definitely miss the trip to Portugal.